Smirk
by siftingcloud
Summary: Her smirk was dusty gold and Urahara couldn't resist.
1. Urahara

_**Fell in love with Yoruichi and Urahara. The plot may not be completely loyal to the canon since I haven't watched or read Bleach in its entirety.**_

_**Reviews would be great.**_

**Bleach**_** belongs to Tite Kubo.**_

* * *

Urahara could hardly place what it was that had always drawn him toward Yoruichi. Maybe it was her skill, her mysterious title when he was boy. Maybe it was her purple hair. Hell, maybe it was because she was his rival and he hated to see that smirk. Yes, it was that smirk that drew him to her, that grin that made his heart tremble.

Yoruichi had been gone for almost two months now. She'd left in early fall, in the beginning of September, and now it was nearing the cold barren reaches of winter and she still hadn't turned up again. It normally wouldn't have bothered him that she wasn't there, especially after she'd been gone for a year once to train and discover the world for herself. Why she hadn't brought him along then always puzzled him. He settled with the answer that cats were solitary. But this time, her absence tugged achingly at the fringes of his mind no matter what he did to get rid of it. This time was different. After Aizen's defeat and Ichigo's settling back into the human world, everyone had thought life would go back to the way it was, the way it had been before the war had torn their lives apart. It was then that sightings of a disturbance in the passage between the two worlds, Soul Society, and the humans' world had been noticed. In the past few months, the accidents of living humans pulled into Soul Society had increased exponentially, together with the hollows' world becoming more and more active. The reapers were panicking, but didn't want to upset the balance even further, which somehow resulted in Yoruichi's being sent to walk the outer reaches of the hollow's land to see whether the lead hollows were up to something. It had been decided that only she, with her unique form-changing skill, would be able to do this, though Urahara, extraordinary as he was, couldn't figure out why she had to be sent alone. The mission was dangerous, so dangerous he hadn't even been told about it if it wasn't for Rukia's owing him and telling him secretly.

Urahara didn't doubt Yoruichi's ability to carry out the task, but she'd been scheduled for return a week ago and there was still no sign of her. The council had agreed to wait one more week before calling the entire thing a failure and trying a new strategy. Urahara was fervently against the lack of a search party. But what could he do until they called it off, but wait? And anyway, Yoruichi would hate him for interfering with her business. So he'd wait a bit longer.

* * *

It was December when she returned in the dead of night. Urahara had been out to Ichigo's house, where he, Ichigo's father, Rukia, Renji, and Byakuya were discussing plans for defeating the hollows that, according Yoruichi's reports, were planning to attack in the form of some strange army. The fact that Yoruichi had reported two weeks ago was the only reason Urahara wasn't racing out to find her. Upon returning, grumpy from how his life seemed to never settle back into the long hours and peace he remembered from when he was younger, he plodded into his bedroom only to find Yoruichi collapsed in a mess of blood and snow in front of his now wide-open window.

"Yoruichi!"

There was no response from the woman on the floor. She was lying face down, one arm twisted awkwardly beneath her body, but she didn't seem to care that she was applying pressure to a broken arm. Damn her for always overdoing everything. He quickly scooped her into his arms, marveling at how light she was, considering how she was wearing a tattered, yet thick white woolen cape. At the movement, she frowned and squinted at him.

"Thank God you're awake," he muttered, not denying his worry. He fussed over her for a while, using kido to heal the bloody gashes that littered her body and the obviously broken ribs that obstructed her breathing. He then yelled down to Ururu to get bandages and blankets (and quickly for God's sake). Yoruichi hadn't said a thing, aside from a few gasps of pain when he hit a tender spot. When he'd finally wrapped her up in bandages and all the blankets he owned (she seemed to be developing a bad fever), he sat back.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he exploded, his voice unusually quiet. He was surprised she hadn't passed out again. Stubborn as always.

Between painful breaths, she muttered back hoarsely that it was he who wasn't thinking. Guilty that he'd made her talk in her state, he ordered her to sleep. She complied and he watched her through the night. There was still something missing in him, but he was happy she was back.

* * *

She recovered from most of her injuries and the fever a week later and after being bedridden for that entire week, Urahara was surprised to find her sitting on his roof.

"What are you doing up there?"

"Looking at the stars."

"You know, you'll get sick again without a coat."

"I have fur if I was cold."

"But you don't even have enough reiatsu to transform."

She scowled at him. "How would you know?"

He gave her his lazy grin. "Because I know you." Then, sighing, "Come down. Ururu's done cooking the stew."

"Don't ruin my moment, will ya?" She gave him her smirk. And suddenly, he felt more full than if he had eaten fifty bowls of the heaviest of stews. He felt complete for the first time in four months. It was indeed her smirk that made her irresistible, though he had to admit, Yoruichi was perfect. He climbed up and joined her, wrapping his cloak around her shoulders. She smiled again and her eyes flashed dusty gold in the moonlight. "Knew you'd join me."

He swore she could see his blush under his hat, could probably hear his heart pounding. "I'd join you anywhere."


	2. Yoruichi

Yoruichi wasn't like Urahara. She was direct and impulsive, jumping into whatever she needed to do. That was probably why she saved Urahara and ran away with him. A man as apathetic as he would've never survived on his own, she often thought to herself. But she knew it was an excuse. She knew it was his eyes that made her own glimmer, his eyes that made her whole.

She remembered wondering how his eyes could be so pale and piercing when she first met him. Back then, as a boy, his eyes had been much lighter, but over the years, they'd become a deep rich blue-green that changed with the light. God how she loved the way his eyes were always so calming. She'd never seen them get truly angry. Come to think of it, she'd never witnessed Urahara when he was unable to muster a lazy grin at her. She had a feeling she never wanted to see his rage, not with what Benihime's anger on its own could do.

Now, perched atop his roof, watching the stars with him, she began to feel a growing sense of unease. She should have felt safe with his arm around her, the warmth of his cloak against her cheek, but for some unknown reason, she'd felt on edge ever since she returned. She thought it might've been a her prolonged contact with the hollows that muddled her reiatsu, but this trembling darkness that twisted her guts couldn't be without reason. "Kisuke, do you feel that?" she asked softly, shivering as she felt it again. Was she too sensitive to hollow energy now?

"Feel what?" His easy voice floated through the crisp air.

"I don't know… it feels like a giant group of hollows are coming." Just as she worded that, her golden eyes shot open. She must've been too sick the past few days to think straight. The hollows had been planning an attack on several towns nearby, including Karakura. Soul Society had been warned and were sending a group of reapers the next day, but it seemed her predictions had been one day off. "Kisuke, they're coming. The hollows," she said quickly, getting to her feet. The panic in her voice was unmistakable. Urahara looked up at her, concern in his eyes. "You sure?"

"Yes. Go get Isshin and Ichigo and tell one of them to alert Soul Society to get a few more reapers. The hollows won't be your average little monster. I'll go see what's going on."

"Yoruichi, wait. Your reiatsu's too weak—"

"Kisuke, really? I've been doing this for the past few months." With that, she leapt off the roof toward the emanating darkness, his green cloak whipped off her shoulders.

Urahara was right. She hadn't recovered yet and she could feel it in the way her breaths came ragged and fast within a few strikes. And she was using her zanpakuto. Where were they? She felt as if she'd been fighting for well over an hour. The hollows were huge, each one towering over the city and every one popping out of a chasm in the sky the minute she killed the one before.

A giant black clawed hand swooped down toward her and her body, trembling in exhaustion, shunpoed to slowly and she watched it carve into her leg as she was thrown into an empty office building, hearing the harsh crack of a rib. She lay dazed for a moment, struggling to catch her breath. At least the snow on the ground had softened her fall, but it was now making her cold. She coughed and felt a thick splatter of hot blood, slide down her chin. She couldn't remember ever being so weak before.

* * *

The next thing she knew, there was someone roughly shaking her shoulder and it hurt so much she groaned and opened her eyes to tell that person to stop. But her voice caught in her throat when she was met with icy blue framed by pale blond. "K.. Kisuke?" she managed.

"Shit, Yoruichi. I told you not to overexert yourself." His eyes softened a bit. She shivered from a combination of the cold and the rage his eyes emitted. She noticed that he was performing kido on her midsection, and felt the pain from her lungs recede. Then he wrapped his cloak on the bleeding wound that was her thigh and cradled her in his arms as he shunpoed away.

"The hollows," she whispered, gripping a handful of his shirt in her fist.

"Ichigo and Isshin have it under control."

She looked at him strangely, her golden eyes questioning cold blue. His grip on her was gentle, but felt forcefully controlled. There was a jump in his jaw and a set to his face that was foreign to her, Yoruichi, who thought she knew every inch of his being. He was as fast as always, maybe even faster, and the next she knew, she was dizzy and trembling, but they were in his bedroom. She coughed again, rough and violent, her body shaking. Blood slid down her chin again.

Urahara let out a string of curses, coated heavily with frustration. He was on the other side of the room, gathering what limited medical supplies he had.

"Kisuke," she muttered hoarsely.

"Just shut the hell up for once," he growled. She fell into a silence, obedient and frightened at his rage. He returned quickly and started bandaging her leg and inspecting her torso for injuries, bright green kido glimmering at his fingertips.

"Are you angry… at me?" she asked him after what seemed like an eternity. He didn't respond.

"I'm in pain here and you're gonna give me…" she stopped, coughing for a second, "that face?"

"You little fool." And she saw the vague motion of his lips into a smile, before it vanished again.


End file.
